Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 : Working with Active Mailbox Databases (part 3) - Recovering Deleted Mailboxes , Recovering Deleted Items from Mailbox Databases

Recovering Deleted Mailboxes

When you delete a mailbox from a user account, the mailbox is retained as a disconnected mailbox according to the mailbox retention setting. You can reconnect the mailbox to the original user account or another user account if necessary. When you delete a user account and the related mailbox, the mailbox is retained as a disconnected mailbox according to the mailbox retention setting. You can connect the mailbox to an existing user account if necessary.

To recover a deleted mailbox, complete the following steps:

1. In the Exchange Management Console, expand the Recipient Configuration node, and then select the related Disconnected Mailbox node.

2. Deleted mailboxes are listed by the mailbox user's display name and mailbox database. Right-click the deleted mailbox you want to recover, and then click Connect. This starts the Connect Mailbox Wizard.

   Note

   Deleted mailboxes aren't necessarily marked as such immediately. It can take 15 minutes to an hour before the mailbox is marked as deleted and listed accordingly.

3. On the Introduction page, select the type of mailbox you are recovering and then click Next. The available options are User Mailbox, Room Mailbox, Equipment Mailbox, and Linked Mailbox.

4. On the Mailbox Settings page, select Existing User and then click Browse. Use the Select User dialog box to select the user account to which you want to connect the mailbox, and then click OK. You can connect a disconnected mailbox to a user account only if the account doesn't already have a mailbox associated with it.

   Note

   If you previously removed the mailbox rather than disabling it, the user account associated with the mailbox was deleted as well. Because each user account has a unique security identifier associated with it, you can't simply re-create the user account to get back the same set of permissions and privileges. That said, if you want to connect the mailbox to a user account with the same name, you can do this by recovering the deleted account from Active Directory before garbage collection has occurred or by re-creating the account in Active Directory Users And Computers. The account will then be available when you select existing User and click Browse.

5. The Exchange alias is blank by default. You can change this value by entering a new alias. The Exchange alias is used to set the user's e-mail address.

6. Click Next, and then click Connect.

You can use the Connect-Mailbox cmdlet to perform the same task following the syntax shown in Example 4.

Example 4. Connect-Mailbox cmdlet syntax and usage

Syntax

Connect-Mailbox -Identity OrigMailboxIdentity
-Database DatabaseIdentity
-User NewUserIdentity
[-ActiveSyncMailboxPolicy PolicyId] [-Alias Alias]
[-DomainController DCName] [-ManagedFolderMailboxPolicy PolicyId]
[-ManagedFolderMailboxPolicyAllowed <$true | $false>]
[-Archive <$true | $false>] [-Equipment <$true | $false>]
[-Room <$true | $false>] [-Shared <$true | $false>]
[-ValidateOnly <$true | $false>]

[-LinkedCredential Credential] [-LinkedDomainController DCName]
[-LinkedMasterAccount UserId]


Usage

Connect-Mailbox -Identity "Per Reitzel"
-Database "Accounting Mail" -User "CPANDL\perr" -Alias "perr"

Connect-Mailbox -Identity "Per Reitzel"
-Database "Accounting Mail" -LinkedDomainController CorpServer72
-LinkedMasterAccount "CPANDL\perr"

Recovering Deleted Items from Mailbox Databases

You can recover deleted items from mailbox databases as long as you've either set a deleted item retention period for the database from which the items were deleted and the retention period hasn't expired, or you have specified that Exchange should not permanently delete items from mailboxes until the database has been backed up and Exchange hasn't been backed up yet. If either of these conditions are met, you can recover deleted items from mailbox databases.

To use Outlook 2010 for recovery, complete the following steps:

1. Log on as the user who deleted the message, and then start Outlook.

2. Click the Folders pane, and then select Recover Deleted Items.

3. The Recover Deleted Items From dialog box appears. Select the items you want to recover, and then click the Recover Selected Items button.

4. Items you've recovered are copied to the Deleted Items folder. In the left pane, click Deleted Items.

5. In the Deleted Items folder, right-click items you want to keep, select Move, and then click Other Folder.

6. In the Move Items dialog box, select the folder to which the item should be moved, and then click OK.

Note

The steps are similar for Outlook 2007, except that you start by clicking recover Deleted Items on the tools Menu.

To use Outlook Web App (OWA) for recovery, complete these steps:

1. In a Web browser, type https://servername.yourdomain.com/owa, where servername is a placeholder for the HTTP virtual server hosted by Exchange Server 2010 and yourdomain.com is a placeholder for your external domain name, such as https://mail.cpandl.com/owa.

2. Next, log on as the user (or have the user log on). At the security prompt, specify whether the user is using a public or shared computer or a private computer. Type the user name in domain\username format, such as cpandl\ bertk, or user@domain format, such as berk@cpandl.com. Type the password, and then click Log On.

3. In the left pane, right-click Deleted Items and then select Recover Deleted Items.

4. In the Recover Deleted Items list, you'll see a list of recoverable items. Select the items you want to recover, and then click the Recover Selected Items button.

5. In the Recover To Folder dialog box, click the folder you want the items recovered to, and then click Recover. You also have the option of creating a new folder and putting the items in that folder.